Save the Last Dance
by tilante
Summary: After Quinceañera, a quiet moment for Alex and Justin.  One-shot.


It had been a long day. After the quinceañera party, Grandma Magdalena had taken them all out to dinner (not without a few jokes about how Jerry would have to pay for himself, since she wasn't made of money). She'd kept the dress and shoes on, since Mom wanted to get to see her in it for a bit, though she'd slipped the shoes off under the table, then put them back on before they'd left, getting Justin to distract Mom for her.

Alex smiled a little at that thought. Justin had looked nice in his tux, she had to admit. And he'd been quite a gentleman at dinner, holding her chair for her, even unfolding her napkin for her. And a good thing he had - as much as she'd hated the dress to start with, Alex had to admit it was beautiful, and it would've been a shame if the chocolate sauce she'd dripped from dessert had gotten on it. For a moment, she looked at herself in her mirror, taking it in one last time. Then she reached behind herself, feeling for the tongue of the zipper. _Couldn't they have put it on the side, where it'd be easy to reach? This thing -_

Her door opened, and Alex turned, expecting Mom or Grandma, but it was Justin instead. He looked at her and smiled a little, still in his tux, and it hit Alex again how good he looked in it, tall and handsome, and… _natural_. He might be prissy sometimes, and overthink everything, but he definitely cleaned up nicely.

"Hi," he said, and Alex returned the greeting. "I'm glad you're still in your dress," he went on, and Alex frowned a little.

"Why?"

Justin stepped forward, letting the door fall closed behind him, took another step, then took Alex's hand. "Because I never got to dance with you."

"What?" Alex shook her head. "Yeah you did - the whole thing with you dipping me, and holding me over your head -"

"But that wasn't you," Justin said. "That was Mom. And that wasn't me either. That was the dance instructor that I switched with." He looked down and away, blushing a little as he said, "And that was Grandma's fault. I wanted to learn how to dance the salsa, so I could…."

He trailed off, and Alex smiled a little, then squeezed her brother's hand. "That's… kind of sweet, actually."

This time it was Justin's turn to say, "What?" He looked at her, blinking, then narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "You're not making fun of me?"

Alex shrugged. "As amazing as it may seem, after everything today, I'm feeling kind of sentimental. So… come here." She pulled at his hand as she said that, and Justin stepped in closer, stopped right in front of his sister. "Put your hands on my waist," she directed, and he obeyed, looking at her as he did.

"Uhh… remember, I didn't actually learn to dance…."

"That's okay." She raised her arms, put her wrists on his shoulders, laced her fingers together behind her brother's neck. "I'm going to teach you a dance. An easy one. When I say 'one', you step right, then on two, step left. Okay?"

"How far?" Justin asked automatically.

"Not far. A foot, maybe." Justin nodded to that, and Alex said, "One." They stepped together, matching, and she said, "Two," and they stepped again, swaying a little with it, looking into each other's eyes.

"One," she repeated, and this time Justin stepped to the right again, and Alex laughed. "This a little too complicated for you?"

"Sorry. It's just… sorry." Justin looked down and to the side, and Alex put her hand on his chin, pulled it back.

"You keep your eyes on the girl you're dancing with," she instructed, looking up into his eyes. "That way she knows you're interested in her, and not looking around at other girls."

"There aren't any other girls here," Justin protested, but Alex shook her head.

"Don't argue with your teacher. Now, start again. One… two… one… two…."

They moved side-to-side with ease, and, ever the obedient student, Justin kept his green-grey eyes on Alex's, shifting them back and forth from one of her eyes to the other, as if he were studying her.

"Now, don't stop. Keep the rhythm." Alex stopped counting, but kept moving, and Justin continued as well. "When you step with your left foot, move it forward a little, and when you step with your right, move it back a little, so we turn in a circle. When I start counting again. Okay?"

Justin gave her a nod, and Alex began counting again. "One… two… one… two… I think you've got it!" She grinned a little at him, and Justin smiled in return.

"Okay, so… what else do we do?"

"Nothing," Alex answered with a shake of her head. "Just keep going like this." Justin frowned as they continued in their little shuffling circle, turned his head a little to the side, but kept his eyes on his sister's.

"That's it? Really?"

Alex nodded. "Yeah."

They continued to circle each other for a few seconds. Justin found himself feeling a little a little too warm. He swallowed nervously, the quickly spoke, trying to cover it up. "So, uh… what dance is this?"

"I don't think it has a name. I always just think of it as the fake-it shuffle."

Justin frowned, and Alex shrugged as he opened his mouth. "It's what the guys who don't really know any dances do when a slow one comes up. Just hold onto their girls and shuffle around like this."

"Oh." Justin's eyes fell from Alex's for the first time since she'd told him not to look away, but she didn't say anything, and after a moment, Justin shook his head a little. "I guess you laugh at them, huh?"

She almost said yes, but then Alex took in the sad, chagrined look on Justin's face, and instead, she dropped her voice and shook her head. "I laugh at them, yeah, but that's not how I really feel," she said, her voice just above a whisper.

Justin looked up at that, frowned again. "No?"

"No," she breathed out, looking into her brother's eyes again. "I… they may not know how to dance, but they're out there trying, and they don't let the fact that somebody else might laugh stop them. When I see a guy doing the fake-it shuffle, I know he's out there because he really, really loves the girl he's with, and he wants to be out there with her, even if he can't really dance. And I'm jealous of those girls, because they've found guys who really love them."

She was the one who looked away then, her eyes shining a little, and then Justin's hand was on her chin, turning her back to face him again. "Hey," he said. "No looking away." He flashed Alex a grin, said, "Or do you want me to think you're looking at someone else?"

Alex blinked up at her brother's grey-green eyes, then laughed a little, smiled, shook her head. "No. I wouldn't want that."

They kept going, another few shuffling steps, and Justin said, "Thanks for letting me dance the fake-it shuffle with you. Now I really can dance with you, if something like this -"

Putting a finger to Justin's lips to shush him, Alex said, "Oh… there is one more thing I need to teach you, if you're gonna do the fake-it shuffle right."

"Yeah?" Justin frowned a little, and Alex nodded, then moved in closer, laid her head against Justin's shoulder, nestling into his neck and chin.

"When the girl you're dancing with does this, you put your arms all the way around her. And you lower your head down, and keep it there while she's like that, so she knows you're thinking about her, not watching anyone else."

"Okay," Justin said, and he did so, breathing in the scent of Alex's hair through his nose. They circled for five seconds, then ten, and then Justin turned his head just a hair, said, "Is this when I'd kiss you - her?"

Alex stiffened in Justin's arms, and for a moment, he thought she'd pull away, but then she nodded, said, "On the cheek, or -" She stopped as she felt Justin's lips touch her temple, and then she pulled away, out of his arms, stepped back. "Uh, yeah. Like that. And, uh, if she… if she wants you to kiss her for real, she'll lift her head. And that's everything."

She swallowed, fighting back the urge to blush as Justin looked at her for a moment, then nodded. "Thank you," he said, bowing his head, then turned to leave. Alex turned away as well, then turned back as Justin stopped in the door and called back a "Hey."

"What?"

"Those heels - they make your legs look really nice," he said, and then he suddenly looked surprised, as if he didn't believe he'd said that, and he left quickly, shutting Alex's door behind him.

Turning back to the mirror, Alex frowned at it, turned to the side and pulled her skirt up a little, trying to get a look. _Huh. They do look kind of nice like this… maybe heels aren't so bad after all._

* * *

><p>Author's Notes:<p>

First off, thanks to IHeartDisney128 for beta'ing this for me. Go read her stories!

So, Quinceañera may seem like an odd choice of an episode to add more Jalex too - but really, the "Jalex" we get in it is other people in Justin and Alex's bodies, so I wanted to add a little postlude to it.

Also, while Alex in Quinceañera insists she doesn't want to wear heels, in later seasons, she starts wearing them almost exclusively… so I threw in my own little Jalex explanation for that.

Hope you liked it!

(And by the way, for any AGP fans reading, you may consider this canonical for the AGP-verse.)


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